Every Knee Will Bow

I am blessed to have lived in Japan as a child.  My parents were missionaries there and those ten years were a wonderful experience.  Without a doubt, my life was enriched and is better now because of those years.  I learned to love many of the Japanese customs and especially one – bowing before others.  Japanese people are very polite.  They bow for many reasons, and children are taught to bow when young.  Japanese bow as a greeting for almost any reason.  Bowing shows respect and honor for your elders.  Young children will bow to the waiting cars as they cross a street.  Mothers will bow to the school bus drivers when their children come and go.  Gas filling station attendants will bow as you enter, when you drive away and to the waiting traffic. Train station workers will bow as the trains leave the station.  Japanese people bow as a way of saying thank you, hello, good-bye, good night, good morning and when they pray.

We Americans don’t bow.  It is not in our culture.  Many might bow casually when praying to God but there are no specific rules for prayer.  Some bow their heads, close their eyes and fold their hands.  Some will go to a quiet place or into a closet so they won’t be distracted.  These traits show respect, reverence, recognition of authority and God must delight when His children bow before Him in prayer.

The Bible tells us that one day, when Christ returns, there will be no option of bowing before Him.  Whether you are God’s child or have never given Him a single thought, the Bible tells us that every knee will bow before Him! 

In Isaiah 45:22–23, “Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other.  By myself I have sworn, My mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before Me every knee will bow;”   

In Romans 14:11, “It is written: ‘As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God’.  So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God’.

In Philippians 2:10, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

These verses should give each of us cause to examine our lives before that day comes.  We all will be brought to our knees in worship and adoration of the God of creation.  What a day that will be when My Jesus I will see!  It will be a glorious and wonderful day for believers!   It will be a day of judgment and condemnation for those who don’t believe.

Are you ready to bow before God?  That day could be anytime; it could be soon!